KARAOKE TRAGEDY
A WOMAN was crushed to death by six giant karaoke screens as she celebrated her 35th birthday in a nightclub.
Horrifying CCTV footage shows Tatiana Pokhorenko on the dance floor seconds before the 440lb scaffold fell on her from above.
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Tatiana died on the spot at the Gallery Club in Siberian city Surgut, eastern Russia.
She had gone there to celebrate her birthday with pals.
Footage played to a court shows Tatiana illuminated by blue lights while dancing under the six karaoke screens.
The screens - installed on a metal structure suspended from the ceiling - rise upwards before suddenly plunging 25ft to the floor.
Distressing video then shows staff and other clubbers pulling the scaffold off, revealing Tatiana lying motionless underneath.
Paramedics arrived soon after but the victim could not be saved.
David Skvortsov, who was DJing at the time, told local media: “I was lifting up the screens so that customers on the first floor could enjoy karaoke as well.
“At one point, the karaoke screens dropped down and killed the woman.”
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Nightclub owner Semen Kopaigora pleaded guilty to causing death through negligence.
Presecutors said the businessman failed to make sure the screens were safe when he had them installed.
But he was spared jail, instead receiving a three-year suspended sentence earlier this week.
Judges at Surgut city court said the sentence was softened due to mitigating circumstances including his two young children.
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Kopaigora had also made amends to the victim’s relatives, according to reports.
Safety rules are notoriously lax in some parts of Russia.
Last year an 11-year-old boy was crushed to death by a two-ton concrete slab that toppled on him in a playground in Astrakhan.
Boy, 11, crushed to death by 2-tonne concrete slab in playground